Established in 1999, the Sardar Patel award is annually conferred by the Center for India and South Asia at UCLA. An endowment was created by funds donated by the Friends of the Sardar Patel Association provided to the UCLA Foundation.

The award was created to honor the best doctoral dissertation on any aspect of modern India - social sciences, humanities, education and fine arts - in any U.S. University or academic institution awarding the Ph.D.